Death row prisoner bursts into song then unexpectedly thanks prison guards in final words before execution
A death row prisoner who was convicted of murdering teenage twins more than three decades ago burst into song and thanked prison guards in his final moments before being put to death.
Garcia Glenn White, 61, became the fifth man to be executed in Texas this year last night (1 October) after being given the lethal injection at the state penitentiary in the city of Huntsville.
He was pronounced dead at 6.56pm after expressing remorse for his crimes, according to reports.
Despite confessing to authorities that he carried out five murders in total, it was the December 1989 slayings of 16-year-old twin sisters Annette and Bernette Edwards which White was given the ultimate punishment for.
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The killer, from Houston, had become enveloped by an addiction to crack cocaine at the time of the incident and was visiting the girls' mother Bonita in her apartment when the deadly knife attack occurred.
He is said to have gone round to the home to smoke the drug with the mother-of-two when they became embroiled in an argument which subsequently turned violent, seeing him stab Bonita to death.
Her two daughters were in their bedroom at the time, and when they emerged to see what all the noise was about, White pounced on them too.
Evidence showed that the former fry cook had broken down the locked door of the bedroom when Annette and Bernette had fled in a desperate attempt to escape him, AP reports.
The murders took place just days after the teenagers had turned 16, and all three victims were found with multiple stab wounds while their bodies were partially clothed.
The case went unsolved for a whopping six years and it was only when White was arrested for the fatal beating of convenience store clerk Hai Van Pham following an attempted robbery in July 1995 that the truth emerged.
His accomplice told police that White had confessed to him that he had killed the Edwards family, and he eventually admitted this to cops himself after being quizzed about the triple murder.
White's involvement was then confirmed by DNA testing, according to court records.
Police said White also confessed to beating another woman, Greta Williams, to death in 1989.
Prosecutors only sought charges for the murders of Annette and Bernette, which he was found guilty of in July 1996.
White was sentenced to death for his crimes, but did lodge multiple appeals in the hopes of overturning his sentence over the years, all of which were unsuccessful.
"Two dead 16-year-old girls kind of speak for themselves in terms of the savageness of these crimes," Harris County prosecutor Josh Reiss told USA Today.
District Attorney Kim Ogg, who witnessed White's execution, added: "The suffering of surviving [the victims’] family members is just unspeakable. At least it’s over."
White was permitted to have five loved ones in the room with him during the execution, but his lawyer of 26 years, Patrick McCann, explained he had asked them not to come.
"I think he was trying to spare people the pain of watching him die, and that is the guy they killed, and unfortunately that’s a waste," the attorney said.
When asked whether he had anything to say by the warden in the death chamber, White began to express remorse for his crimes, before bursting into song and heaping praise on correctional officers who had cared for him.
The killer said: "'I apologise, and I pray that you can find peace, comfort and closure in your heart for the wrong I have done and the pain I have caused you, and anybody else I’ve caused pain to.
"I’m sorry for all the pain I have caused.
"To all my brothers and sisters incarcerated, y’all just keep pushing forward, keep loving one another. To the administration again and to the guards, thank you for treating us like human beings."
White thanked his family and friends for the 'love and comfort' they had given him, before willing them to 'stay strong'.
The 61-year-old then began belting out several verses from the hymn 'I Trust in God' while the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began to take effect, which caused him to make several loud 'snore-like' sounds.
He was pronounced dead 17 minutes later.
Topics: US News, Crime, True Crime, Death Row
Olivia Burke